Customer Support and Forum Answers

[timothy91]

Highly disappointed in this forum where the moderators seem to randomly appear to answer a question or 2 ever so often and neglect others. The lack of presence where there are many viable questions that should be answered by them in a timely manner are often ignored, this is not good business practice. There are issues on here that should be answered that many others are seeing.
Emailed customer support about an issue, got a response, emailed them back about an ongoing issue, a week later, still no response.

[stevecccc]

I agree totally! I have been having issues with the IP2M-841B losing its settings constantly and the issue has not been resolved or responded to since November 30th. https://amcrest.com/forum/ip2m-841b-set ... -t374.html

People have provided screenshots, software versions and all pertinent information without any further responses or solutions. Not a good way to promote customer satisfaction! I'm still on the fence about returning the camera mostly because of the poor customer service.

[brenthg]

Their phone support was very helpful. One of their Tech's spent more than an hour working on my Mac remotely and resolved my problem.

[Brien]

It is because of this very same lack of product support I bought a Lorex system yesterday for my home.

I've had my Amcrest system for 3+ months and email notification worked for about a week. And I don't have an hour to sit on hold waiting for their tech support to take the call.

Aecrest needs to put more effort into supporting their products or more and more people like me will by their competitor products.

They can help remedy this by doing a lot more YouTube videos on different topics like email setup, receding time, etc. instead of generic videos about the entire setup process, which lacks detail instructions on the most crucial functions. They can also respond to forum post with much more detailed instructions.

[JaneSmith123]

Agreed. I will probably return my camera because of how terrible the software is. It feels like the people who made the desktop software, the web-based software, and the app are completely different companies. And they never communicated with each other. And they all made bad software anyway.

[JVH58]

[Brien] Thanks for the post. After reading your post I visited the LOREX website, reviewed their systems and was impressed. The reviews on and off their website were positive and the customer service and technical support reviews were exactly what you expect to receive.

When comparing the AMCREST products and support to that of LOREX there was no comparison. LOREX is selling state of the art equipment and offering top notch support and all for the same relative price as AMCREST.

One thing you'll notice immediately from their (LOREX) forum is that no one is having any of the issues the AMCREST customers are having with the equipment or installation and it is obvious that important items such as the cables are top quality from LOREX(several people here had to replace the AMCREST cables to get a good signal).

I purchased my LOREX system today and cannot wait to get my hands on it.

I initially was seriously considering the AMCREST system but after reading one issue after another in this forum and seeing very little support replies I decided to continue my research for a great system.

As a side note I am not implying that the AMCREST systems are junk. All I am saying is that the feedback I read here about installation issues, faulty equipment upon delivery and next to null support I could not comfortably consider an AMCREST system.

[Melvin]

Hello everyone,
We apologize for not being able to respond to some of the queries in a timely manner. However we do provide technical support over telephone and emails and that has been our priority. We will definitely try and respond to as many queries as possible going forward. Please feel free to contact us for any questions you have.
https://amcrest.com/contacts

[JimSchuuz]

I do not work for Amcrest, and I have problems sometimes just like everyone else. I even have something outstanding that has not been resolved. However, I have installed several Lorex systems myself in the past and I can assure you that their equipment is not any more "state of the art" than Amcrest or Foscam. Furthermore, I have absolutely experienced some of the same problems with their equipment as people have experienced with Amcrest. I have seen the Lorex brand carried by more resellers, but in my opinion their quality is still very sub-par. Neither Lorex nor Amcrest are commercial-grade, this is absolutely true. But trying to say one is better than the other is patently false: each brand is a matter of personal preference, that's all. It's like trying to say that D-Link is better than Belkin or Netgear - none are any better, they are all low-grade consumer equipment, not intended for commercial use.

[JVH58]

Just an update:

I am certain that AMCREST provides an adequate product. However I know two persons who have purchased and installed an AMCREST system. Both have had continuing issues with their systems and in my personal real life comparison the LOREX systems are superior.

I received my system today. For comparison this is the system I bought.
https://www.lorextechnology.com/HD-DVR- ... tem/2088.p

From the time I opened the box and setup the entire system on the bench for testing including downloading the iPhone app only 1 hour and 10 minutes had lapsed. I had never hooked up a security system before and it was just that easy.

Everything worked the moment the switch was turned on and the iPhone app worked perfectly. I thought that I would have to configure tons of settings but LOREX automatically did it all for me. The quality of this system and the video output is no doubt better then my two buddies with comparable AMCREST systems.

This short hands on review is not based on personal preference. It is based on performance and quality in a real life comparison. As a first time installer if someone told me the LOREX systems were very sub-par then I would have to assume that possibly the quality of cabling or connections or something to that effect was the issue or possible the monitor the image was displayed on was inadequate.

Anyhow my review is intended to encourage others to shop further than AMCREST and if you still feel AMCREST is your choice then go for it.

My results with my LOREX system is exceptional so much that I am now selecting four more cameras to complete the system.

Whatever system you chose I hope that it meets and exceeds your expectations. I know that mine did.

[DanNeumann]

I can't speak for others but I own and operate a small business and don't have much time for phone chat. I figured this "tech" forum was created for buyers of Amcrest systems to get "tech" help but it seems our efforts to get help fall on deaf ears. I really can't see a reason to have a forum like this by Amcrest if they aren't going to answer questions being asked on here by the people buying and using their products. Just sayin'